Baber Origins
(Data Compiled from Various Sources)See FamilySearch.org page on the Baber name and family.
Where is your last name from? — FamilySearch.org
Y-DNA Testing has proven Distinct Lines exists in the American Babers that are White, West European, but not related,
going back to the time we thought American Baber families were are rooted to Robert Baber that immigrated in 1679.Baber, an old English name, dates back to the Hundred Rolls of the year 1273, where can to be found the name of Henry Baber. Only the best families or those of royal birth were entered in the "Hundred Roll". The name Baber in England has its main history beginning in Somerset. Although other spellings have been seen the Surnames of Baber and Babers are the only ones featured on this website.
An article about The English Peasants' Revolt of 1381, mentions Henry Baber as a participant.
See the Nick Balmer Article
Medieval Baber Soldiers
Baber, William Service Date: 1389 Rank: Man-at-Arms Service: Standing Force, Scotland (East March) Commander: Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk
Baber, Stephen Service Date: 1424 Rank: Archer Service: Garrison of Bayeux / bailli of Caen. Commander: Sir William Breton
Early American Settlers
Many American Baber families' folklore maintains that the first Baber to come to America was Edward Baber, from Somerset, England. Edward Baber was a stockholder in the London Company. The London Company was an association of "noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants." In 1606, King James I of England granted the association for settlement in North America. It founded the Jamestown colony in 1607. Edward Baber of Somerset County was a subscriber to the Third Charter of the Virginia Company of London in 1612. Edward Baber's name appears on the 1611 Virginia Colony census.
Most stockholders did not want to make the long voyage to the colonies themselves. It is said that they assisted the poorer relatives and friends to make the harsh journey. Some seem to have gone to represent business activities of the Baber family.
The founders of the London Company believed that precious metals existed in the Americas. They spent about ten thousand dollars to send three groups of emigrants to America. By 1608, King James threatened that if the colony did not make money, the colonists should be "left in Virginia as damaged men." Two new Charters one in 1609, and one in 1612, reorganized the company, but it still failed to make a profit.
King James had no sympathy for the hardships of the unsuccessful colonists. The swampland, the malaria, the disagreeable drinking water, and the raids of hostile Indians were too much for the starving colonist. In 1623, James took over the association and the London Company was dissolved.
In July 1653 a deed involving William Pierce mention's a location of Baber's Neck on the James River in Virginia. Further search shows the common name in the area was rather Baker.
The oldest common ancestor with American born children and traceable roots to England is Robert Baber, born in England in 1651. He came to America indentured to Thomas Foster in 1679. A John Baber came indentured to a Doctor in Virginia in 1658. We have no idea of how to trace his lineage or what became of him.
John Babers was the first to add the 's' to Baber to distinguish himself from other Baber relatives with the same name. He was born in 1794 in Virginia.
East India Company
The English Babers went to India as employees of the East India Company. So far the earliest date of an English Baber landing in India appears to be about 1760. Many of the founding members of the East India Company and the Virginia Company were the same people. They invested in shares in voyages and were promoters of the colonization in America and elsewhere. They would have had rights to land, due to their investments and contacts in America.
Many Englishmen who went to India were on a one way trip. You could not return for at least twenty years. Their chances of returning home were less than those of an infantryman of the First World War. There was very few English women living in India at that time; so many Englishmen had Indian women as their wives. Some of the Englishmen brought their wives back to England, but most pensioned them off. There is no indication that any of these Englishmen were of the Baber family. The Baber family members that went to India went as family to run the plantations and to do business for the Crown.
In the eighteenth century quite a lot of English-Indian mixed children living in India went home to England to be educated. Some of these children were sent back to India. Some went to the English estates in the West Indies. It is said that the mixed raced children were far more likely than English bred children to survive the hot climate of the West Indies. Again, there are no documented cases of this in the Baber families that were in India.
Baber Surname in India
The Baber surname, although not related to the English Surname Baber, can also be found in India. Baber or Babur in India means the tiger. The name Baber, was given to Zehir ed-din Mohammed (1483-1530), he was the first Mogul emperor of India. The Mogul dynasty he founded lasted until early in the nineteenth century. A poet as well as a warrior, Baber wrote in both Turkish and in Persian. His most important work was The Baburnam. His memoirs were translated into English in 1922.
It is doubtful if many Indians from India traveled to the West until the era of the 1550's. A few Indians were used mainly as crewmen on the Portuguese Vessels. Before 1612 their only possible route to England would have been by overland as the Romany people traveled to Europe. Documented case of such travel have no connection with the Baber family.
Baber Surname in Germany
Jakob Baber of Saulheim is mentioned on his red sandstone gravestone in St. Stephan Parish, Mainz, Germany. He was a Vicar from at least 1470. He was the son of Jeckel Baber and his wife Anna. He died on March 26, 1501.In Hamburg, Germany, May 6, 1656, to Secretary Thurloe from Richard Bradshaw and documents merchants James Baber and James Baber, possibly father and son. James Baber would probably the James Baber, son of Francis Baber, listed as High Sheriff of Somerset, and Anne Whitmore. This date, before the recorded travel of English Baber's to Virginia may indicate some residents could have been from Germany as immigration was not as registered at German ports
Another Baber was mentioned in the 1680's in Germany. The Y-DNA of several groups associated with the English have Y-DNA that could place them as German although no proven link exists.
Early Baber names:
In 1290-91 a Stephen Baber was High Sheriff of Warwickshire and again in 1292 with William Castello
Stephen Baber who was apparently Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1290 - 2. Another was Nichaloa Baber who witnessed a document a little earlier than that relating to land at Ambroseden which is near Bicester in Oxfordshire. Did he mean Hambleden. I have seen Nicholas 's name before he was connected with the Church.
Roger Baber 1315.
One-sixteenth part of a fee in Hambleden was held in 1302 of the Earl of Gloucester. (fn. 190) In 1346 it was parcel of the manor of Headington (co. Oxon.), having passed to Sir Richard D'Amorie, (fn. 191) greatnephew of Roger Lord D'Amorie, the third husband of Elizabeth, one of the sisters and co-heirs of Gilbert de Clare Earl of Gloucester, slain at Bannockburn in 1314. (fn. 192) On the death of Sir Richard D'Amorie without issue in 1375 Headington Manor reverted to Elizabeth Chandos and Eleanor Colynge, sisters of Sir John Chandos, and Margaret de Annesley, his niece, (fn. 193) and the connexion between it and Hambleden appears to have been severed.
Thomas Poynant held this land, afterwards known as SKIRMETT MANOR (Skirmot, xiv cent.), as sub-tenant in 1302 (fn. 194) and Thomas Poynant and John Notebem as sub-tenants in 1346. (fn. 195) The latter surrendered his right in it in 1351 to Adam son of Thomas Poynant, (fn. 196) who five years later successfully opposed a claim to one-third of this manor in dower made by Roger Baber and his wife Joan widow of John Notebem. (fn. 197) Between 1381 and 1411 Elizabeth wife of Richard Megre had rights in the manor, (fn. 198) which she and her husband at the later date warranted against her heirs to Thomas Senycle and his heirs. (fn. 199) A reference to the vill of Skirmett occurs in 1416, (fn. 200) but the manor appears to have been dispersed among various owners. William second son of John Doyley of Greenlands (fn. 201) left his lands called Skirmetts and Bennetts by will proved in 1556 to his son Thomas on the death or marriage of his widow. (fn. 202) These afterwards came to his second son Robert, (fn. 203) father of Timothy Doyley, later of Parmoor Manor (q.v.), into which they were probably absorbed. Another portion of the manor called Poynetts was sold in 1572 under the name of Poynetts Farm by William Waller of Stoke Charity (Hants) and Wormsley in Stokenchurch, which is under 4 miles from Poynetts, to Richard Lane of Lee (Bucks.). A later Richard Lane bequeathed it to his nephew Richard Lane, who bought Mill End (q.v.). At the death of his son's widow, Ann Hynd, it was inherited by John Deane, cousin of Ann Hynd's first husband and son of Elizabeth Lane by John Deane of Howe Farm. It remained in the Deane family until purchased in 1900 from Colonel R. W. Deane, son of the Rev. R. Deane, by Mr. A. H. Cocks, the present owner. (fn. 204)
The hamlet in Hambleden called FRIETH, THE FRIETH or OLIVERS FEE (Frith, xvi cent.) in 1384 was held of Hambleden Manor for 44s. yearly and suit to one view by Sir Reginald Malyns and his wife Florence (fn. 205) (Parmoor Manor, q.v.). A later member of his family about 1429 granted Olivers Fee to one Wimbush. (fn. 206) His lands came into the possession of the Elmes family, (fn. 207) and were conveyed by one of its members in 1548 under the name of The Frith to John Doyley. (fn. 208)
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